August 29, 2009 at 2:14 pm (History, Images, Science, Travel)
Active or deep interpretation of maps is a subject that isn’t taught nearly enough in schools, which is a bit of a pity as recognizing maps as clues to a country’s character can give students an interest in geography they’ve never had before. Simply taking a good look at a map of a country compared to the other areas nearby is often enough to give one a good idea of what sort of geopolitical situation it happens to be in, and in many cases a good enough understanding of this can aid in even predicting the future between two or more countries.
link: Page F30: Understanding countries through maps
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January 18, 2007 at 5:56 pm (History, Images, Travel)
This story and the associated photos are pretty incredible.
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Behind the raging horseshoe falls of Niagara there lurks a dormant monster…
Pandora is playing: Cedar’s Mood (Live) from the album “Live at the Fat Cat” by The Sheryl Bailey 3
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September 11, 2006 at 3:22 pm (History, Personal)
Five years ago today, two commercial airliners were flown into the World Trade Center buildings in Manhattan, bringing the buildings down and killing thousands of Americans that happened to be from all over the world.
I remember walking into the Engineering shop at work to see people huddled around a television. I walked up and asked what was going on and was told that it looked like we were under attack. Just then, live on CNN, an airplane hit the second tower. We were all shocked of course, but everyone held tight to their private worries and concerns. For days we watched, waited and worried. We wept for those in the airliners, those in New York and Washington DC and hated the ones insane enough to pull this off. We worried about our families and friends. We worried about whether the country would pull through this or collapse in a manner reminiscent to the way the towers crumbled before our eyes.
We’ve certainly pulled through but nothing is the same, anywhere in the world.
There is no excuse for this. It is pure evil. To shed the blood of the innocent is wrong and the people in the World Trade Center towers were innocent. Those that attacked them are not.
iTunes is playing: False Alarm from the album “Eye to the Telescope” by KT Tunstall
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August 17, 2006 at 5:28 pm (Christianity, History, Personal, Writing)
What’s so wrong with being an imperfect human being anyway?
Just saw that Mel Gibson has been given 3 years probation for drunk driving and it reminded me again of the fact that people are no longer allowed to make mistakes.
It’s not just celebrities either. It seems like anyone who makes a mistake these days is destined to be disowned by their employer, friends, neighbors and even family. Is there no such thing as loyalty anymore?
When did this society decide that it would destroy anyone who was caught being human? All people make mistakes. I do, you do, everyone does. Anyone who says otherwise is not being truthful and should be flogged (just kidding).
It’s almost as if we’re supposed to hide our humanity, that hiding our nature is the normal way to live and those who let theirs leak out have broken some cultural taboo.
The gloss, the veneer, the sheen, the image, the mask; all the things we wear to hide our inner self are not impenetrable. They break, they crack. We can’t hide behind them forever.
iTunes is playing: Ghost Story from the album “Brand New Day” by Sting
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August 3, 2006 at 10:21 am (History, Movies, Politics, Travel, Websites)
So, Mel Gibson has been arrested and charged with driving under the influence of alcohol. Not only that, but he has been accused of saying some unkind things about people of Jewish descent during the arrest. He has since issued a public apology and has asked to meet with Jewish leaders to apologize for his remarks. Of course he is being vilified in the press and now his planned miniseries about the Holocaust has been canceled by ABC.
There are many tragedies in this story; the obvious ones are the impact to his career, which will survive, and his family, who are probably more disappointed than anything else, but what about the loss of the miniseries that has been shelved by ABC. There is no doubt that the Holocaust story needs to be told and retold, because people seem to continually and intentionally want to forget that it happened. Consequently the loss of this reminder of our humanity and it’s often deadly failings could be the greatest loss from this incident.
This seems particularly poignant right now with Israel blowing Lebanon apart while hunting Hezzbolah, a radical group who has vowed to destroy Israel and the Jewish people. So Mel Gibson is anti-semetic for being an idiot while intoxicated and Hezzbolah is what? Misunderstood? What choice is Israel ever given in these matters? It always seems a choice of existence or oblivion for them.
AOL/XM Radio is playing: They’re On To Me from the album “Someone To Tell” by Ari Hest
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